Still Photographs

"Don't people say that to you all the time–Is this a bit? Are you doing a bit? And I go no, I'm talking."

Yeah, like 'this is in your act.' And I say, no, no, it's not in my act!"

I'm just trying to get directions..."

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These diptychs are made from combinations of photos made while pursing other projects. The combinations are primarily formal, which allows the strangely juxtaposed content to smash together in wonderful and exciting ways.

I am motivated by surprises. When I go out to make photographs, I start with few set conditions for what I will encounter. Remaining open to everything is paramount to my process. I photograph many things and often, and then I sort through that work to find the interesting pictures. The work is then sifted—sometimes dozens of times—until themes emerge and then I can see what I was after the whole time. With this work, I was finding death and humor. Not easy subjects to sit near each other. I found them inseparable however, and the results filled with enormous tensions, which I feel are only understandable by looking at the pictures themselves.

Photography is a way to understand the world for me, and I combine the old techniques of street photography with new ideas about image context to stimulate, surprise, and challenge the assumptions of my viewers.